The brand promise of Apple — This is an Apple ad: — Done by Apple. More on that later. — So, last night I was out to dinner with a bunch of smart people. Folks who run their own companies. Folks who have helped many companies get started. Tech companies.

Google Goes after the Everyday Blogger — Last night Google decided to go after some of the bloggers in our network, reducing their PR from whatever they previously had to zero. Once again Google has proved that PR has little to do with blog traffic, influence or relevance and everything …

Visual Studio 2008 Is Imminent — Microsoft will ship its latest developer tool set as soon as Nov. 19 and by the end of November at the latest. — Microsoft has signed off on Visual Studio 2008 and is expected to release it early next week—on Nov. 19, sources said.

NBC Acquires 'Quarterlife'; Internet Series Will Run First Online — NBC has concluded a first-of-its-kind deal to acquire the talked-about new Internet and social network series "Quarterlife" for distribution as an hourlong drama series on the NBC network after it has first played in eight-minute segments on several Web sites.

Microsoft DNS bug long-known, familiar to researchers — Problem goes back at least a decade, say security pros — The DNS cache poisoning bug that Microsoft Corp. patched last Tuesday stems from a flaw that has been known to researchers for 10 years or more, the two security firms credited …

I WANT MY METRICS, AND I WANT THEM NOW! — Media companies live and breathe — in large part — through the benevolence of the agencies that control vast resources of ad dollars for their clients. This relationship is a part of what's being disrupted by Media 2., and it's …

23andme: Evil Or The Way Of The Future? — 23andMe, the genetics company founded by Sergey Brin's wife Anne Wojcicki will launch Monday with a service that will bring science fiction into reality. — 23andMe will offer a genetic screening service for $999.

Is Facebook Advertising Effective? — Fred Wilson has been updating the world about his venture in Facebook advertising over the past week. Today, Fred posted and updated screenshot of his ad campaign's performance and it doesn't appear to be too stellar. For one of his campaigns, out of 10,080 impressions there were only 8 clicks.

The Writers Strike And The Future Of The Net — The Writers Guild of America strike has been an interesting debacle to watch, complete with a host of issues the public might not have thought of before. The inevitable convergence of the Internet and TV is one of them; the continued homogenization of American culture is another.

Freetards turn on Google — Well it has been a long time coming but the freetards are finally starting to wake up to the fact that Google is not really part of their club. Or, rather, that Google belongs to their club when it suits them but not always. Check out this story on Wired.com …

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